Area Businesses Chip In on Chesco SPCA Expansion Projects

(Dale Kerns of Re-Volt Electric rewires a barn building at the Chester County SPCA for its next use as an animal training and testing facility. Photo by John McDevitt)

By John McDevitt

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (CBS) — Today’s hot weather didn’t stop volunteers working on a renovation project on the property of the Chester County SPCA.

“The heat and the humidity, it’s a little rough here,” admitted Dale Kerns, the owner of Re-Volt Electric of Morton, Pa. His company is restoring the electricity and installing lighting in an old barn on the grounds of the Chesco SPCA — and he’s doing it all for free.

“It’s just nice to help out those who help out others, and give recognition to others,” Kerns told KYW Newsradio.

Russ “Wolf” Harper, the Chester County SPCA’s interim executive director, says this is the start of a volunteer project to turn the structure into a training and temperament-testing space for animals coming in.

(Russ “Wolf” Harper, outside the SPCA barn being refurbished. Photo by John McDevitt)

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“We want to be able to provide them with a livingroom-type of environment when we come over to train them not to jump on couches and not to tear apart trash cans,” Harper explains, “so when we do send them home, the adopters can have an easier time. And that would result in less of them coming back because of those behavioral issues.”

Donations of skilled volunteer work are being sought, along with donations of building materials such as drywall and tile. More information is available at www.ccspca.org.

John McDevitt has been a reporter and editor at KYW Newsradio 1060 since April of 1999, but he’s been in the all-news family for more than a decade.
McDevitt grew up in Drexel Hill (Delaware County), graduating from Monsignor Bonner High School,...